The Mutator transposable element system of maize is one of the
most active transposable element systems known in plants. The autonomous
element of this system, MUDRA, encodes two proteins MUDRB. We have identified
an amino-acid motif in MUDRA that is also found in the putative transposases
of a group of bacterial insertion sequences, suggesting that MUDRA is the
transposase of the Mutator system. In addition, we have identified
two rice cDNAs in the rice EST database that encode proteins with a high
degree of similarity to MUDRA showing that Mutator like elements
exist in rice, as has been suggested previously.
Alignments of the motif
Here is a table of some of these proteins.
Here is a list of some new database entries of sequences similar to proteins in the Mutator family.
Here are some links to people who work
on proteins in this family or to other sites related to these proteins.
Eisen, JA; Benito, M-I; Walbot, V. 1994 Sequence similarity of putative transposases links the maize Mutator autonomous element and a group of bacterial insertion sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 22(13):2634-2636.Medline Link
